Published in Graphics

Google working on 4K codec

by on01 September 2015


VP10 uses half the bandwidth

Search engine Google is working on a new video codec which can deliver Ultra HD 4K using half the bandwidth of VP9 and a quarter of the bandwidth of H.264.

VP10 is claimed to offer sharper images, richer colour and greater dynamic range. Like VP9, Google's VP10 will be free to use, open source software.

Of course there will be a few problems, even if Google can get the thing running. Google's VPx codecs are not high on the list of standards being adopted.

VCEG and MPEG are behind the popular H.264/MPEG-4 which is used by Blu-ray videos and its successor HEVC/H.265.

However Google might win because there will be significantly higher patent royalty payments required for using HEVC/H.265.

Using HEVC in a device costs from 80 cents for mobile devices, and from $1.50 for TVs plus an extra uncapped fee of 0.5 per cent of all revenue from streaming video. H.264 commanded a flat 20 cents fee.

Matt Frost, head of partnerships for Google's Chrome Media team thinks the HEVC Advance royalties and fees announcement "has made companies look at a lot of options," especially with the tricky streaming fees burden.

He pointed out that a company selling 10 million HEVC-equipped smartphones or smartphone chips would have to pay $2 million to MPEG LA and $8 million to HEVC Advance. Netflix would have to cough up, per subscriber, based upon what was watched per user in a particular month.

Google claims VP10 will be ready by the end of next year. VP9 is making headway, being used on YouTube and with promised support from the likes of Samsung, MediaTek, Nvidia, and Broadcom.

Cisco and Mozilla want to support different royalty-free codec developments because Google controls VPx.

Last modified on 01 September 2015
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